Sleepwarping
by Lackaday
Summary: Skywarp sleepwarps into Perceptor's lab late one night after a huge fight with TC, and Perceptor hesitates too long to turn him in for it. It turns into more of an issue when Skywarp doesn't stop appearing in his lab after the first incident.
1. Chapter 1

Cross posting these from my Ao3 account because wwwwwwwhy not? There's not enough fic for these two on here and I know a lot of people don't use Ao3. And I really want more people to JOIN ME IN THIS SHIP.

* * *

The lights in Perceptor's private lab were turned down to a soothing low level. The only bright light illuminated the desk he worked at from overhead, necessary for working, and allowed Percy to ease his processor into the comfortable lie that nothing outside his lab existed anymore. All that the world was, was his comfortable, warm, quiet, familiar, safe lab.

VOP

The sound was soft, but to Perceptor's audios it may as well have been a nuclear bomb detonating - setting off a flurry of skittering and scraping and knocking the things on his desk over-skywarp-SKYWARP-SKYWARP was in his lab! He scrambled until the closest weapon was laced in his fingers and shouted something at the con -what it was didn't even register with his processor.

It was only then that he noticed that the large purple and black jet hadn't even been awake when he's vopped his way in. The decepticon's wild and violent red optics lit and brightened slowly, as if it was taxing and arduous. Then something strange seeped into them. Panic. Panic bled through those optics and ate all the menace until it was the only thing that remained.

Perceptor pulled his vocalizer back together enough to threaten, "I have a panic button!" He remembered, berating himself for momentarily forgetting about it. Ratchet, his surrogate creator, had given it to him when he'd been brought to live with the medic early on to help him feel safer. He'd gradually used it less, kept it out of his hands more, slowly pushing it further from his conscious processor in an effort to make his creator not worry that his creation wasn't growing used to the autobots and becoming more trusting. "I'll press it!"

Skywarp didn't show sign of truly understanding the threat though, other than that there was a threat to be feared. The con's wild optics bounced around the room and up and down Perceptor, who was much smaller and much less physically threatening than the other. Not that the lack of immediate threat from the microscope had been fully processed yet. He appeared to be having trouble forcing half of his processor up and out of idle. Skywarp scrambled back deafly until his wings bumped up against the wall.

It became apparent that the jet was mumbling something franticly. Perceptor, unnerved but intrigued, tuned in to decipher it. What he made out was a mixture of swearing, whimpers, confused pleading, and cursing anything and everyone the jet could immediately think of.

"Autobot, autobots," he mumbled in fear. His eyes lit up further as more of his processor came online, and the jet started trying to force his teleporter to work again. It sputtered and refused though, at most causing him to fade into an incorporeal state briefly -presumably either prepping to warp or half way between places.- It was puzzling and fascinating to watch, and kept Perpcetor's attention in such a way that he almost forgot what the danger of the situation was in favor of scientific exploration.

The jet's mechanisms made a cracking noise and his teleporter gave out -waiting to be fixed by his internal repair system, Perceptor hoped- and Skywarp made a high pitched whine. He looked like a hurt, cornered animal. It was familiar, and stirred something deep inside the microscope that he never expected to feel; pity and sympathy. The sight reminded him of the times when he was in a similar position, and the fight in his systems eked away.

Percy kept the gun in his hand and approached carefully. "I will not hurt you-if you don't attack me." He added quickly. "I won't even touch you, if you don't want me to." He kneeled next to the other.

Skywarp's tightly wound processor loosened by a fraction, watching the other closely.

Perceptor wasn't deterred, and continued inching towards the other. "If you leave now, I will not tell." He second guessed his judgment, before continuing. Something in about the way he saw part of himself in Skywarp kept him from turning him in, and truth be told it was scary. "I promise. I will not tell the autobots you appeared here." An itching question burned in his vocalizer. "How did you end up here?"

"Ac-accident," the jet whispered "warping in rech-recharge cycle-happens-shouldn't happen anymore I thought I'd stopped that!" He cried out in deep distress. His teleporter clicked and sent him a negative report when he tried to kick it on again, inputting the familiar numbers to home. The current location randomly coded into his teleporter was scrambled. It just added to his dizziness and made it harder to pressure his teleporter into working again. "Where, can't, this placed is masked-and I caaan't get ouut," Skywarp moaned.

"You can't get out because my location is scrambled?"

"No-can't get out cause teleporter shorted the frag out, repair-repairs s's repairing s'self."

"How did you get this location?"

"S's'random."

"Is it recorded?"

"By m'teleport processor, s's all fragged up n'shit. Only c'n tell what it'd is s'my teleporter."

"How can I trust you."

"…swear on my spark."

"How can I trust your spark."

"M'sparks all I got. And even then… it's barely mine."

There was a pause in conversation as Perceptor eyed where the room's security camera hung from the ceiling, facing mostly away from them, and pondered what to do next. He knew he shouldn't trust the jet, but…

What he should do was alert the security team and have Skywarp stasis locked and packed into the jail. He knew that. It nipped at him and burned in his processor in the place his moral compass was kept. He had one more question, then he'd... he'd turn Skywarp in, this was ridiculous, he was being bad. This was a decepticon. He shouldn't feel bad for him.

But the distressed noise that the large jet made, made his spark reach out for him. And his curiosity nagged when another question came to his mind. "Why do you sleep-teleport?"

The jet mumbled something, clearly not wanting to answer.

"Please repeat that more clearly."

"Had a fraggin fight n'it sent me all whatever ways" was his agitated answer.

"You're injured?" Of course you are.

"No. N'more than normal." He tacked on lamely before continuing. "It was with Thundercracker. A real fight."

"You are him have false fights?"

"We have shitty fights all the time but we don't mean it afterwards." He rolled around to face partially away from him, teleporter sending him reports that it was warming up and ready to go again.

A stress response then, Perceptor noted.

"Frag am I tellin' you this anyway."

"I don't know. Maybe simply because I asked?" He mentally queued up to comm whoever was on duty in the security office.

Something about that statement made Skywarp zone out for a click, a confused wave of emotions rolling over his face.

His teleporter pinged him that it was ready.

Skywarp sat up straighter and looked at the smaller mech from the corner of his optics. "Better get going then before you ask me anything important." He smirked and before Perceptor could comm the security team, Skywarp fazed out of the room with a quiet, staticky popping noise.

Perceptor jumped and called the security office, hesitating before filing a disturbance report. He was certain that no one would believe him that Skywarp had been in his lab, even despite the security camera seated in the upper corner that would have just got a shot of him. No one had ever believed his paranoid reports before, so why would they now?


	2. Chapter 2

It was about a week of Earth's calendar where things were relatively accident free in Perceptor's small life, which was spent primarily in the medbay for the first few days after Skywarp appeared in his lab. He refused to explain to Ratchet why he was avoiding his personal lab, where he was usually a near-permanent fixture in. The most he explained was vague excuses of bad dreams about decepticons in there, which Ratchet accepted with weary optics.

Returning to his personal lab was refreshing though, when he finally came back to it. Perceptor shuffled a few things around, updated his logs, and picked up where he left off in his work. Luckily he hadn't been working with perishables, so continuing wasn't difficult.

Lab work was soothing and quiet, just like normal. It was his solace from daily life, both in the past when he was a microscope belonging to Shockwave, and now when he was the autobot's most promising scientist.

His work went on into the hours and Perceptor lost track of what time it was, forgetting to refuel and being completely engrossed in his work.

A VOP went off, disrupting his peace and throwing Perceptor's head into a tizzy. He flailed, spinning in place and reaching for whatever was on his desk as a blunt weapon. "SKYWARP" he yelled, expression set but optics wide. His gaze flitted around the seeker's frame, noting the over-the-top fake surprise permeating the jets stance. It was a good show of surprise, Perceptor supposed. But he was here /again/ and this time it was almost certainly not an accident. "What do you think you're doing here!"

"How did I GET HERE?" Skywarp called back, turning whichever way and throwing confused glances as if to say 'this was certainly not what I was expecting'.

Perceptor resisted rolling his optics and eased up a bit. "Skywarp-/Skywarp/. Please calm yourself." He said in his steady, seemingly-emotionless voice. "Go home before I report you. This time I /will/ report you-what what are you doing?" His speech was interrupted as Skywarp moaned and made for the cube of energon Perceptor had left, forgotten, on one of his desks.

Skywarp picked it up and took a quick swish, a pleasant expression taking over.

"Skywarp are you listening to me?"

"Mmnn yeah, now I am, what?"

"That's mine, and if you do not leave immediately, I will be forced to report you." In responce, Skywarp teleported across the room to Perceptor, still holding the cube. He pushed it into Perceptor's hands. "Skywarp what was the purpose of teleporting across a single-" Skywarp pulled Perceptor's hands up and stole a sip from the cube they held. Please don't spit in it, the microscope worried as the seeker gave him a cheeky grin.

"See yeh." The jet whispered into Perceptor's audial. Then he quickly teleported away, leaving the scientist clueless and confused.

The rest of Perceptor's day was relatively quiet, but the serenity that was once there had gone away. He was on edge for most of the remainder of the cycle, processors mostly taken up by the thought that Skywarp could just appear in his lab whenever he wished. He really really should report him, maybe get his lab changed-but then someone else would have to deal with the jet, and that would almost certainly end with Skywarp dead. Plus, what would they be able to do? Skywarp would be able to just warp away the moment he came back. Yes, they might be able to get a shot in before he fled, but they wouldn't be able to keep him in one place.

Or could they?

The thought was intriguing, creating something, a field maybe? that Skywarp wouldn't be able to warp out of. Perceptor would need sufficient knowledge of how Skywarp's warpdrive worked, or at least enough readings on how the energy fluctuated when he warpped to make an educated guess. And so, he set to work. He would be ready, the next time that Skywarp appeared, ready to take as many readings as he needed without the seeker even realizing.


End file.
